Happy people habits: having enough

More isn’t always better and less isn’t always worse. What you have might just be as much as you will ever need, you might just have enough to be happy right this minute with what you have, however much or however little. You find that all you need for happiness is having enough.

Enough sadness to appreciate the laughter, enough ugliness in the world to see beauty all around you in small things, enough hardship to take true pleasure in rest – enough of life, enough for living, enough to surround you and take you through your journey. You only need so much to make your way through in the world, so many words to be able to express yourself and so many friendly faces to follow you as you go. You do not need it all.

We often postpone our happiness – we actively refuse to be happy until we get what we want. And once we get it, we want something else like spoiled children often do. We get used to the wait on the right thing, the right conditions or the right people to finally have what it takes to feel satisfied. In fact, you can be satisfied today, now, without waiting on anything or anybody. Being alive is the only requirement for happiness.
Things are just that – things. They hold very little meaning considering that anything worth having in life cannot be bought or sold. Having more than someone else means just as much as having less – it means nothing. You can be happy in a castle or you can be happy in a cardboard box – if you choose to. The happiest people in the world don’t have it all – they just have enough: they are happy with what they have and they value what they do possess.

Winning a lottery won’t make you happy, not in the long run. You think it’ll solve your financial problems but then you’ll get others. There are sad stories of lottery winners going about on how getting a fortune turned into a misfortune followed by broken relationships and even further debts . You think you need a lot of money for happiness… you don’t. You need just enough to pay the bills and have some spare. If someone asks you how much money do you need for happiness – the best answer is “enough”. Living in a big house won’t make you feel any better if it’s an empty house – having a lot of money tends to push people away, the people you actually want to be around you.

Wanting to have more than your next door neighbour makes no sense whatsoever. Different people find happiness in different things – what makes one happy might be despised and avoided by others. It applies to things and experiences. You don’t have to do what others do because you see it makes others feel happy like a holiday or buying a new house. Always ask yourself, what do you want? What it is that you believe that’ll make you happy. Perhaps, you already own it.
Not everyone wants to climb Everest and not everyone wants to have a professional career. Everyone finds their own happiness in what they have and what they do as long as we don’t try to get more for the sake of “more”. We get caught up in searching for something greater or waiting for that greater ‘thing’ than we forget to take a moment and rejoice in what we have right now. Most of us already have everything we will ever need. Most of us do have enough already.